The FOS have finally seen that there is a massive issue with these loans after years of customers telling them. I was taken to court by them in 2013/2014 for possession but successfully got a decision from the judge that the interest rate variation clause written in the contract was unfair (see Firstplus vs Murphy & Dye) but others have not been so lucky - some have lost their homes to these people or are maybe still struggling to pay them If you have a first plus loan (now transferred to Elderbridge) please make sure you make a complaint to Elderbridge or Barclays first plus asap! please feel free to use the court judgement above too - although it did not set a precedent, it will only help you! Please also check out the following urls (use chrome) - these are archived web pages from first plus's website the first is in 2006 - under the section How does the variable interest rate affect my loan? they state quite clearly "From time-to-time, your monthly repayments may go up or down in accordance with the Bank of England interest rate movements." http://web.archive.org/web/20060812175251/http://www.firstplus.co.uk/new_customers_faq.aspx#loanfor Yet they did not reduce their rates when the BOE rate dropped to a historic low did they? then 2008 where you can see they changed it to say "This is the rate of interest that fluctuates over time with general interest rates" – becoming quite vague in their explanations. http://web.archive.org/web/20080223123115/http://www.firstplus.co.uk/aboutourloans/Pages/loan-jargon-buster.aspx#v And finally in 2015 close to when they sold their loan book to Elderbridge they then changed their website and then said that it is not tied to the BOE or FHBR http://web.archive.org/web/20150511120847/http://www.firstplus.co.uk/FAQs(please select Interest rate changes for the dropdown to view) Here it states "The product is a variable rate product and the rates charged on the loan are not tied to the Bank of England or Finance House Base Rate. Our terms and conditions permit changes to the rate for various reasons, including to reflect changes to interest rates and to ensure our business is carried out prudently, efficiently and competitively. The reasons which allow us to vary the interest rate are set out in your loan terms and conditions." This is a clear contradiction to the version in 2006 when most customers took out their loans. This is simply mis-selling of product as well as being unfair, you have not been able to predict or rely on any specific market deviations that may give rise to a change, moreover, they do not provide any specific data to enable you as the customer to plan for any such changes. I have now not paid them for 2 years and complained again last year - my case is with the FOS and I hope that it will resolved soon, I have done a simple internet search and found a freedom of information request to the FOS for the numbers of complaints about this, the reply was that they have negotiated settlements on 150 cases and have 60 outstanding (this letter was dated July 2020) I in my complaint to first plus I advised that I have been given a lot of information from a friend who was in court with them but due to what she was about to ask for in court they very quickly settled her account in full after previously giving her a settlement figure of 189k! Based on this I stopped paying them 2 years ago and they have not chased me - now I do not suggest you do that as it will affect your credit score - I did because I had already suffered the default on my credit report for 6 years so would not affect me and I wanted them to take me to court again but they have not even written to me to ask why I have stopped paying. So again please make sure you make a complaint now - you will need to give Elderbridge 8 weeks to resolve -they will deny that they have done anything wrong but after that make sure you send to the FOS. Do not be put off by anyone on other advise sites such as Moneysaving expert or elsewhere, you have been miss-sold miss-led and generally treated badly and it's time for payback!

Hello, Me and my husband saw an ad for claiming PPI from black horse, now my husband said that he thought we had an account with them for a car quite a while ago now. and so we went online and gave all of our details to check, but they have written back asking for the account number and paperwork etc that we don't have anymore, I can't even be sure that we had an account but my husband was admant. The question is, shouldn't they be checking that. all of the claims companies said that they can check without paper work. so shouldn't they be able to do it themselves? I would understand if they came back and said "you never had an account with us" but they haven't. Any thoughts?

Can anyone help please? I really need to get my response back to the FOS today - or they will close my case!

Thanks Bankfodder! Hello again everyone. I received my SAR back from Elderbridge and what and absolute load of **** it is! 1. They did not send any transcripts or recordings of any phones calls - both myself and my husband spoke to them in Aug 2016 (noted in their diary notes) and I called them in Dec 2018 (again noted in their diary notes) it was the same day they sent the reply even though they have mentioned me calling in their notes on that day, so not sure I should let that go or not! I also spoke to them in July 2016 (again in the notes) and I spoke to them in Dec 2012 (again in the notes) 2. Going through the diary notes in the beginning notes were sporadic mainly because we were making payment and everything was ok, then later as things changed there were notes almost once a month, then in NOV 2012 and Dec 2012 frequency of notes increase as this is when they began court proceedings. and throughout 2013 again lots of notes made - mostly their in house stuff about court dealings and so on - so that's fine. then in NOV 2013 hey made a not re the court date in OCT - saying that they were ordered to treat the loan as having a fixed rate from inception and sent off etc. BUT from 21 Nov 2013 to 17th June 2014 there are no notes at all! Now the hearing was on the 10th Jan 2014! 17/06/2014 14:43 *****Substantial EVS costs to be added to any SF ****** 17/06/2014 14:43 EVS Defended + At the hearing on 10/01/2014 an SPO for 500 on 26/01/2014 and then CMI + £60 wef 26/02/2014 plus MJ for £103,331.03 suspended on the same terms. It was also held that we could add our costs - Defended costs on this case are £33,879.80. 17/06/2014 00:00 Reviewed Reviewed 17/06/2014 00:00 ***Defended Costs*****:To be added to any SF ***Defended Costs*****:To be added to any SF 21/11/2013 04:13 ADHOC Statement Printed From 03/10/13 To 13/11/13 Batch 2015 Sequence 28 Printed 13/11/2013 00:00:00 Above you can cleary see the gap then suddenly the first notes talk about the court case and costs etc, at the trial in OCT the judge reserved cost till the next hearing (also stated on the documentation from the court) but then at that hearing in Jan 2014 we did not discuss costs - the 6 month gap I feel is very suspicious. The final court document dated 13th Jan 2014 says to pay the claimant £103,331.03 which is the amount outstanding under the mortgage and goes on to says order were not to be enforced as long as we pay etc. no mention of costs at all - so they seem to just be adding them 3. They sent a field agent to me in Jan 2018, I only knew this as on the 9th Jan 2018 I was working at home and heard the letterbox, thought it was the postman, went to the door to find an envelope shoved through the door with a letter in it saying they had been requested to visit me and that they called today but I was not in! and gave a number for me to call ( I saw the woman walking down the driveway - but she did not ring the bell! and I wasn't about to run after her!) But in the notes they have written this utter lie! 30/01/2018 12:44 Field Agent Report Received The field agent visited the security address on three occasions. The customer was spoken to through the window. They refused to discuss and refused to answer the door. The contact number on file is not recognised. RFA - Not known Reasons for items not verified:N/A Details of variances of items outside of expenditure guidelines and reasons N/A Property is a detached house in good condation valued at £406,000. Equity not known. I actually cannot believe what I have read here! Can I ask them for some kind of proof of this, because I don't know who they are talking about but it certainly wasn't me! 4. the documents they had sent me a joke, they have sent 77 documents in total, none of these are copies of letter from Elderbridge (which is who I sent the SAR to) all from First Plus and certainly not ALL of them, they have been bulked out by sending me copies of documents that I sent TO THEM for my court defence and there are strange Black boxes over some of the text!? which I don't understand! After receiving this info from Elderbridge I decided to send a SAR to Barclays and I got a small package with a couple of letters, some diary notes and screen shot of the account, as well as a short statement of account. This was for our ORIGINAL loan from Feb 2006, (we topped it up in June 2006) and the first one was closed. The second one is the one that has been transferred to Elderbridge but Barclays seem to know be denying ALL knowledge of it! and I know that they still hold the beneficial interest of these loans and that Elderbridge regularly contact Barclays for help and advise - I have contact with other account holders who have diary notes from Elderbridge showing contact to Barclays!.. This week I also had a reply from the FOS (only from an adjudicator not an ombudsman) and his initial opion is that it's ok for Elderbridge to claim the costs as we defaulted, he seems to be ignoring my argument that the relationship is unfair etc but I will be sending this back and asking for it to be looked at by an ombudsman. But was hoping that someone here could give me any advise re all of this - sorry I know it's a lot!!

Hi again, I don't want to bang on about it, but I heard there were some changes to overdraft fees that they were switching from daily fees to monthly interest rate. Now as I explained before my fees went from £100 per month to £372 and I tried to come to an arrangement with the Halifax but they were not very helpful. Now I do need to ask the question again regarding the default, I just need to know if they should have sent a Default notice for an overdraft or does this only apply to credit cards? I am not asking if anything would have been different or if I would have paid it straight away if I had received a default notice. I am going to do a SAR to Halifax anyway, but I would like to know if they should have sent a default notice.? Thanks

well no, but it's not really the point

ok but if they never sent it in the first place then that cannot be right. I admit it is my fault that I wasn't able to pay them but it also their fault that their fees jumped from around £90- £100 per month to approx. £370! and they quickly started reporting that I was not keeping up!

but if they never sent a default notice then surely they cannot register the default and it should be removed?

Hi again, well I decided not to make payment to Westcott, as I need to sort out the default. Can Halifax register a default like that? I have checked though all papers received and did not receive a default notice at all. any advise please?

the account is not viewable online with the Halifax and they have told me they've passed it to Westcott

Hi all, ok not been back for a w while had a lot going on. but to catch up, I contact Halifax to explain that I was willing to make payment , thye asked me to complete an income and expenses form etc. due to house selling issues I was having, I neglected to do this and the account got closed and passed to Wescott. Wescott wrote a couple of times and I went to their website and made an arrangement to pay approx. 1 week ago. one strange this is that all letters were addressed to my husband and none to me - (it was a joint account) Anyway, the other day I checked my noddle credit report and found that halfax have registered a default, but I never got a default notice! This can't be right - or is it different for overdrafts - any advice greatly appreciated!

further to this . Got a letter from Elderbridge saying our signatures do not match and asking for ID! received yesterday but dated 11th Oct (conveniently 1 day before the 30 day deadline) are they seriously expecting me to believe that it took 7 day to reach me!!! come on now! I am absolutely livid (as you may be able to tell!) Now the loan was taken out before we were married so I thought they might says that my signature did not match and ask me for ID but they are asking for both of ours - my husbands signature has not changed for over 30 years!! they are also asking me for a certified copy of my marriage cert. I called the ICO and explained the above, told them I believe they backdated the later to be within the time limit - she agreed that it seemed that way, and that they should have immediately replied to my request asking for my ID not waited till the 30 days was up or almost up. she advised me that if I want the data then I will need to send them something to prove my id, but she sad that she thought having a certified copy was not proportionate. and that they will most likely be in trouble for delaying it so long she told me to send reply to them then forward that to the ICO along with a copy of their letter received yesterday and it will all be added to my complaint. I am just so annoyed at the complete lack of respect they have for me or any of their customers, trying to pull the wool over my eyes like that, did they think I was born yesterday??!! :-x

well it will come as no shock that Elderbridge have not complied with the SAR, I have now complained to the ICO. also still no reply to my complaint re the settlement amount. But got this from the court, which still doesn't make any sense! ‘This is a mortgage case, so the mortgage itself usually entitles the Claimant to add legal costs to the mortgage account. The court therefore does not order costs and the Defendant will need to check with the Claimant what costs (if any) were added to the mortgage account. The case was allocated to the Fast Track by order of District Judge ****** made on ** June 2013. That decision would have been made based on the type of claim, its value and complexity among other factors.’ I replied back to them 'The issue I have is that the case was for over 100k which is well above the 25k limit, it was also quite complicated. It is my understand that costs can only be added to the mortgage account if they are reasonable but the costs were not assessed. Also in a fast track trial I believe the costs are capped, but capped at what? They supplied an estimate of their costs but as explained costs were not discussed in the last hearing, I do not understand how the judge can say in the Trial that costs will be discussed in the next hearing, then not discuss them and this then means that the claimant can just add them?' their next reply was 'As mentioned in our previous email, the file was located and referred to the judge along with your correspondence. The previous email contains the judge’s comments after reading your correspondence. Also, please note that court staff are unable to comment on judicial decisions. If you are not satisfied with the decision and want to contest it, please seek legal advise on how to proceed. ' It make no sense to me that they would mention in the trail that costs would be rserver till the next hearing then not mention them at all and because of that Elderbridge are allowed to just add them. also surely the court also needs to clarify whether interest can be added as it looks like that's what they've done! any further advise greatly appreciated

Thanks Andy, Not much I can do right now I suppose, I'm waiting to hear from the court that they've found my file, waiting for my SAR to come back too. When he SAR gets to me, I plan to make them an offer, I have already paid around 94k, I borrowed 100k, they can have 6k at the most. Or I pull out of my sale and go to court. I am aware that they have now settled with 5 other customers now. I know things that I don't think they want me to know, it'll be in their interest to make a deal

well if it was that straight forward and Elderbridge believed they are correct to charge the costs or add them to my loan etc, then why has it taken them over 4 1/2 months to tell me so. They still have not responded to me about this, they've treated it as a complaint and have not replied!